27

"Today," Moody's growling voice called from the front of the classroom where he stood, wand out and eye whirling, "We will be looking at the imperius curse. Everyone stand up." With many sideways glances at each other the class obeyed and Moody swept his wand through the air, causing the student's desks and bags to slide to the edges of the room, leaving a large space free in the centre. Many students looked apprehensive, but some looked excited- they hadn't had a good practical lesson since Professor Lupin had left.

"Now, line up at the back of the room. One by one, your name will be called and you will step forward into the centre of the room. I'll then place the imperius curse on you and we'll see if any of you can fight it. Any questions?" He said all of this so quickly that most of the class was still processing what it was he had actually said, and so by the time they had finished figuring that out he would have moved on with the lesson and they wouldn't be able to complain. That had been the plan anyway, but the ex-auror didn't plan for Hermione, who had her hand up in the air before he'd even finished speaking. Sometimes she still amazed Harry with her intelligence.

"But, sir, that's illegal!" she exclaimed, without waiting to be asked. Harry's eyebrows shot up into his hairline- she was right, use of an unforgiveable was a one way ticket to Azkaban. What was Moody thinking of?

"Miss Granger, do I look like I care about what's legal and what isn't? I care about teaching you to defend yourselves, and it is easier to defend yourself against this curse if you know what it feels like. And Dumbledore agrees with me, so don't even try it. If you don't like it, you're free to leave." Hermione, of course, stayed exactly where she was (although a small pout appeared on her lips and a frown on her forehead) and though Harry briefly considered walking out just to annoy Moody he decided against it and the entire class stayed still.

"Right. We'll have Miss Patil first then," Moody gestured for Parvati to step forward and though she was trembling slightly her head was held high as she did so. She was a Gryffindor, after all, and she had her House's reputation to uphold.

"Imperio," Moody hissed and a blank look spread across the girl's face before she started flapping her arms and squawking like a chicken. A few people laughed but most stood in stony silence, minds awash with the terrifying possibilities of the curse. Just hearing about it was one thing, but seeing it used on a girl they knew well made it so much more real, and so much more horrible. Harry slid his wand out of his holster and into his hand, where he gripped it so hard that his knuckles went white. The entire time Parvati was under the curse, he had to fight with himself not to just storm forward and hex Moody, but after what seemed like an eternity to him (although it was more in the realm of half a minute) Moody lifted the curse and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. In next to no time Parvati was back to normal, although a look of mortification spread across her face as she hurriedly moved to stand at the back of the room with her classmates.

And so it was that Harry stood and watched each of his fellow students be controlled, be violated, by the teacher. Every single one of them failed to fight the curse, and so Harry wasn't exactly feeling confident when, with only three of them left, his name was finally called. Like Parvati though, he upheld Gryffindor's reputation of bravery and stepped forward casually, as though he wasn't about to allow a man whom, whatever Dumbledore and Sirius had to say on the matter, he really didn't trust put an illegal curse on him.

Standing right in front of Moody, he mustered all of his confidence and looked his professor square in the eyes. Well, eye anyway, as his magical eye was wandering around the room. What Harry saw there surprised him- for a second he could have sworn that he saw eagerness shining in that good eye, but then the second was over and the look was gone, leaving Harry feeling even more apprehensive than he had before. Moody must have noticed this as he smirked faintly.

"Ready, boy?" he asked, not realising that he was saying both the worst and the best thing he could possibly have said to Harry at that moment. There was nothing that riled Harry up more than being called 'boy'- he had had quite enough of that when he was living with the Dursley's, and he wasn't about to put up with it from Moody. Straightening his back so that he stood at his full height, he towered over Moody with a grip on his wand so tight that it almost hurt. He allowed a nasty smirk to play around his lips.

"Oh, I'm always ready for you, love," he drawled in his best imitation of Draco Malfoy at his worst. The ex-auror scowled and his eyes hardened as he raised his wand.

"Imperio," he spat out, and Harry had only a second to notice the pure glee in his professor's expression before a wave of calm settled over him.

Fall over backwards... a voice whispered to him and for half a second he obeyed, swaying dangerously back. But then what he liked to call his 'inner Sirius' kicked in, as it always seemed to in a fight, and his mind was screaming at the voice, pushing it away. All of a sudden the calm feeling was gone and Moody's face swam into view in front of him. Without even stopping to consider what he was doing, let alone to consider the consequences of it, Harry pulled his fist back before slamming it into Moody's face. His knuckles screamed in protest, but the professor flew backwards, hitting into his desk and almost dropping to the floor. His magical ye was spinning wildly, but his normal one found Harry's and there was such hatred, such malice there that Harry took an involuntary step backwards.

Looking back on the scene later, he would realise that there were only three clear thoughts in his head at that moment; there's something wrong with Moody, I really want a smoke, and there's really something wrong with Moody. He floundered for a second as his professor spat blood out of his mouth and the class continued to hold their collective breath, but then Moody began to straighten up and Harry made his decision.

Dumbledore. Acting quickly, he turned and stormed out of the room.

Laughs, whispers and taunting remarks followed him as he stomped through the castle towards the headmaster's office- clearly the few students out of lessons were Harry haters, and not afraid of showing it. Only the supreme importance of his getting to Dumbledore's office quickly stopped him from beating the living daylights out of some of the more vocal students. But as it was, he simply snarled at them and carried on his school robes billowing out behind him in a manner that Snape himself would be proud of. Of course, Snape would likely be less proud of the dragon skin boots and skin tight, tattered jeans and tee that he wore underneath, but what Snape didn't know couldn't hurt him. Unless he didn't know a Death Eater was behind him. That could possibly hurt him.

It took Harry fifteen minutes to reach the gargoyle, by which time class had finished and the corridors flooded with students. Many strange looks were directed his way as he attempted to guess the password, but after ten minutes of embarrassing himself he got it right (sugar quills) and was allowed through. He rushed up to the office, taking the stairs two at a time and barrelled straight into Dumbledore's office without pausing to knock.

"Professor, I need to talk to you," he burst out, before pausing as he saw who was in front of the headmaster's desk. "Pads? Moony? What are you guys doing here?"

"Oh, err... you'll find out when you're older, pup," Sirius finally said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, trying with all his might not to link this to Dudley asking his mum about sex and Petunia answering with 'I'll tell you when you're older'. He really didn't want to go down that train of thought.

"You wished to talk to me, Harry?" Dumbledore cut in calmly, successfully diverting Harry's attention.

"Oh, yeah. There's something wrong with Moody." Harry allowed himself to be distracted, but there was no way he was going to forget about this. They had unwittingly just presented Harry with a mystery, which was possibly one of his favourite things to be presented with.

"That's Professor Moody, Harry, and I know that you and he do not get along but-"

"No, sir, this isn't about that. Today, in class, he put us all under the imperius curse and-"

"He WHAT?" Remus interrupted Harry, his face a mask of shock and disgust, "He put you all under an unforgiveable? What the hell is he thinking?"

"It's alright, mate, we knew he was going to do it," Sirius gestured to himself and Dumbledore, "the only way to learn to fight it is to experience it and-"

"Look, that doesn't even matter, although a little warning next time we're going to have illegal fucking curses put on us might be nice," Harry snapped, glaring at Sirius who had the grace to look slightly ashamed of himself. "What matters is that he bloody enjoyed it- I saw it in the bastard's eyes. He liked putting that curse on people, liked having that control. He was positively fucking gleeful when he put it on me. Now tell me there's nothing wrong with him." Sirius and Remus looked vaguely sick, and the twinkly had disappeared completely from Dumbledore's eyes.

"Are you sure, Harry?" Remus asked.

"Of course I'm bloody sure!" Harry exclaimed, exasperated, "I don't know what it is, but there's something wrong with that man!" Sirius's face paled suddenly and he turned horrified eyes to the headmaster.

"Didn't you tell me the other week that Snape had potions ingredients missing? Please tell me that they weren't the ingredients for oh, say, Polyjuice?" There was a pause as his words sunk in and then Dumbledore was up from his seat, wand already in his hand.

"Harry, go and find Severus, tell him to get the veritaserum and then bring him to the defence classroom. Sirius, Remus, with me," he barked before sweeping out of the room, leaving the others to hurry along in his wake.